“Make your mistakes nonfatal,” Gundlach tells me. “It’s so fundamental to longevity. And ultimately, that’s what success is in this business: longevity.” Gayner’s portfolio is built to last. It would have been much more lucrative if he’d loaded up on Amazon, Google, and Facebook. But his investment decisions—much like his approach to food and exercise—are not intended to be optimal. Rather, he’s attempting to be consistently and sustainably sensible. The cumulative effect of operating this way over three decades has been extraordinary because he has harnessed the power of long-term compounding
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